Does anyone know what the CHP unit designation "cozy" means? Been hearing Sacramento area units such as "47 cozy 7" and other similar calls. Hear 'em mostly at night, maybe I just answered my own question. If anyone knows..how about it?? Any more designators would be appreciated as well. Thanx

Last edited by charlielinn; 12-13-2011 at 2:07 AM..
Reason: spelling and more question

Hey KJ6 thanx for the quick answer..ran to grab some coffee and your answer beat me back to my desk! Yeah..I was kinda thinkin' cozy meant that the smaller units meant for closer sittin, maybe. HA.
PS: I spent many great years in Nipomo, Santa Maria, and Arroyo Grande area.. Envy you. Best weather in the USA!

Haha thanks! I took this picture a couple of days ago in Avila Beach... it was 73º or so

Anyway - how about some more CHP unit designators? I was actually wanting to start this thread a few nights ago when I heard one I didnt know.

I also have a question on unit number. For example local SLO station is Station 28 - heavily focused around the highway 101. An often used unit designator is 28-101. Coincidence with the highway? Maybe, but then there is a 28-404.

Templeton, Station 9 - has a 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4. Sometimes they have a 9-4B, Boy indicator meaning doubled up I believe with another officer. Sometimes when there is a 9-4, there is a 9-14 - but not any in the middle there, does making the 4 a 14 (or a 3 a 13, etc) have any meaning? Also sometimes there wil be for example a 9-4X - whats the Xray indicator? Not a female officer.

Great idea. Been hearin many new designations as of late, and can't find 'em anywhere in print. If I do, will certainly post 'em here. Great Avila photo, too;..I spent many nights drinkin beer and hangin' crab nets off the third pier in the distance! The restaurant/fish market dumped a buncha carcasses and trimmings off the side, and crabbin' was pretty good. Great times..(sigh)

Coastal units - Monitoring SLO Ive heard a Coastal 71 and Coastal 61 I believe be in the area, and then switch to Black (King City) when entering their area to the north or Green (Santa Barbara) to the South. What are these units, and who is their boss? LOL.... they cross multiple areas so trying to figure out what they do exactly.

Also the all white commercial enforcement vehicles or the commercial trucks - do they have special designators?

Coastal units - Monitoring SLO Ive heard a Coastal 71 and Coastal 61 I believe be in the area, and then switch to Black (King City) when entering their area to the north or Green (Santa Barbara) to the South. What are these units, and who is their boss? LOL.... they cross multiple areas so trying to figure out what they do exactly.

Also the all white commercial enforcement vehicles or the commercial trucks - do they have special designators?

"Coastal" units are based at the Coastal Division Office. They have special functions (auto theft investigators, for example) that extend outside of the responsibility of one Area Office.

The Commercial Enforcement units assigned to an Area Office are typically the xx-850 series units.

Every CHP King unit I've ever heard has always used the division name (e.g., "Inland King 6" or "Golden Gate King 4"). Other Inland Division-based units I've heard are in the 100 series (e.g., "Inland 113").

It's kind of funny to hear them addressing dispatch with the same name. They'll say something like, "Golden Gate, Golden Gate King 4."

Interesting. I do somewhat rarely, but regularly see a K9 CHP Crown Vic leaving the Coastal division office - maybe that is what it is then. Ive heard him make traffic stops before - do they perform regular CHP patrol/accident duties, just have the dog with them fulltime in case the need arises, and therefore cover a bigger area (division vs. office)?

In Border Div, K-9s are mostly at or near the border for vehicle searches, but they do get called out to other areas for searches, and in route to wherever, they do make stops. I don't believe that they do 'normal patrol' duties, unless required. I have seen a couple of them "meeting" in a local parking lot (away from the border) several times. In SD County, all agency K-9s are "mutual aid" available to any other agency.

Hey people thanks for all the info..you've answered many of my questions already!
KJ6 guess ya had the right idea, there seems to be a lot of interest here. CHP is very active here in the greater Sacramento area, and cooperate constantly with the sheriff and Police departments, as well.
I can hear 'em from San Francisco, Stockton, up the freeway 80 and 50 "corridors", and in between so's
there are so many designators to learn!
Great example of RR being the best thing ever happened to our hobby, no?!! Sure has helped me!

Haha thanks! I took this picture a couple of days ago in Avila Beach... it was 73º or so

Anyway - how about some more CHP unit designators? I was actually wanting to start this thread a few nights ago when I heard one I didnt know.

I also have a question on unit number. For example local SLO station is Station 28 - heavily focused around the highway 101. An often used unit designator is 28-101. Coincidence with the highway? Maybe, but then there is a 28-404.

Templeton, Station 9 - has a 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4. Sometimes they have a 9-4B, Boy indicator meaning doubled up I believe with another officer. Sometimes when there is a 9-4, there is a 9-14 - but not any in the middle there, does making the 4 a 14 (or a 3 a 13, etc) have any meaning? Also sometimes there wil be for example a 9-4X - whats the Xray indicator? Not a female officer.

I have more, Ill save them for later

Lets see if I can tackle a couple of these...my experience is based upon Inland and Valley Divisions specifically, but also with monitoring other divisions while traveling.

The first 1,2, or 3 numbers will be the area office (Auburn - 45; Barstow - 73, Morongo Basin - 106, SLO - 28). The second set of numbers will be the beat or area(usually), or the officer designator (less often).

CHP uses two beat systems: Line Beats, and Area Beats. Line beats generally are specific to a highway, usually freeways. Area Beats are "surface street" areas, and are exactly that, areas rather than "lines" (highway-specific).

Example: Barstow: Line beats for I-15 start at Wild Wash with '70', and run to '75' at the top of the Baker Grade. 76, 77, and 78 are officer-specfic numbers for the resident officers at Mountain Pass, but those numbers reflect the line beats in their area. Line Beats for I-40 start at '41' at the 15/40 split, and run out to '47' where they meet with Needles' beat. The most commonly staffed beats are 70, 73, 74, 75, 43, and 47. The beat officers may physically be responsible for more than just their single beat, but the numbers don't reflect that. I don't remember what their surface beats are called (haven't worked there in 13 years). Their graveyard cars (back then) were just a line beat number with an "G" at the end (73-75G, 73-43G).

Morongo Basin used to use '1' through '5' and '11' through '51'. One was an area beat system and the other was a line beat system for SR62 (not a freeway), but I don't remember which was which.

For Valley Division, specifically Auburn Office: I-80 line beats start with 281 at Sac County line, and run to 283 just south of Colfax where Gold Run takes over. SR65 line beats are 265 and 267. SR 49 line beat is 249. Their area beats are all two digit, specfically 20, which is the south Placer County car, covering Granite Bay, Loomis, and the west side of Folsom Lane. Not sure the other area beat numbers (they usually aren't staffed). The graveyard units are line beats with an "X" at the end, usually 45-281X.

In Golden Gate Division, Solano office uses I-80 line beat numbers starting at '80' or 81' at the west end of their boundary, and ending at '88' in Davis where they meet Valley Division. I don't know their other beats (I travel to Napa regularly, so I only listen to Solano).

The beat numbers are not consistent across the state, and I don't know whether they are selected at the Office level, Division level, or State level. Some offices (like Auburn) reflect the highway numbers in the line beat designators, but some offices do not.

CHP Statewide policy requires graveyard cars to be two-person cars (I think after 2200, but that may vary by office). Most offices outside the major metro areas will only field one or two graveyard cars to cover everything; back in the days when I was actively working with CHP, the only offices who were authorized an on-duty graveyard unit were offices with a freeway in the area. That may have changed since then; I'm not sure. I know Grass Valley fields a graveyard unit (usually 42-X), but they also have a couple sections of Hwy 49 that is 'freeway', so I don't know if that is still a criteria or not.

King units are K-9's. They are a Division resource, so they will carry the Division name and an officer-specific number (Valley King 3, usually just spoken as King 3 unless outside his primary division). Other Division numbers can be anything at the Division-level, such as Auto Theft, PAO's, some Divisions have commercial officers using Division callsigns, etc.

A 'B' after a beat number will indicate a second unit in that beat...usually in congested areas. (45-281 and 45-281B...both units assigned to the 281 beat). An 'M' after the beat indicates a motor unit. A 'D' used to indicate an Office special detail officer, such as a PAO (public affairs officer), a VIN officer, or other "office" assignments at the Office-level. Don't know if that is still accurate.

I hope this helps, and I apologize in advance if any of my information is either outdated or inaccurate...it's been quite a few years since I actively used the CHP radio system. I still monitor them, but I don't have the personal contacts anymore. If anyone can correct my mistakes or expound on my post, it will be greatly appreciated.

A 'B' after a beat number will indicate a second unit in that beat...usually in congested areas. (45-281 and 45-281B...both units assigned to the 281 beat). An 'M' after the beat indicates a motor unit. A 'D' used to indicate an Office special detail officer, such as a PAO (public affairs officer), a VIN officer, or other "office" assignments at the Office-level. Don't know if that is still accurate.

This may not be relevant for the OP's area, but I have monitored the San Bernardino and Arrowhead offices quite a bit. Those offices use an "A" suffix for days shift, a "B" suffix for evening shift and "C" suffix for graveyard shift (e.g., 75-202B is an evening unit assigned to line beat 202 of the SR-210 freeway).

San Bernardino unit designators are almost always based on freeway line beats although the office has four area beats as well. (The one exception I can think of is some weekday days shifts an officer would be working as 75-410, and 410 is an area beat.) Arrowhead unit designators are always based on area beats, and I don't think they have line beats as there are no freeways in that area.

I'm not sure it's appropriate to post them in this thread, but if anyone is curious about which beats are commonly assigned and what areas they correspond to for the San Bernardino, Arrowhead, Baldwin Park, or Oakland offices, I can share what I've heard and learned perhaps in another thread.

This may not be relevant for the OP's area, but I have monitored the San Bernardino and Arrowhead offices quite a bit. Those offices use an "A" suffix for days shift, a "B" suffix for evening shift and "C" suffix for graveyard shift (e.g., 75-202B is an evening unit assigned to line beat 202 of the SR-210 freeway).

And that just reinforces my observation that each Office does their beats a little bit differently, so there doesn't appear to be any consistency statewide. Thanks for your update!!